Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance is delighted to announce the opening of the Chris Johnston Memorial Fund – we are now accepting applications for the 2018 award.

The Chris Johnston Memorial fund was established in 2017. It supports the professional development of new theatre makers whose interests lie in the creation of work with and/or for communities.  The fund is held by Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation) and administered by Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance.

The fund can provide an award of up to a maximum of £1,000 towards any of the following:

  • Support for a placement or internship with an existing professional company or individual whose work aligns with the key criteria.
  • Support for an individual to develop and realise an arts project that meets the key criteria.
  • Support for a Rose Bruford College Graduate Company wishing to run a project that meets the key criteria.

Applications from practitioners who are in the early stages of their careers will be given priority.

 

Criteria

Proposals will be considered provided they meet two key criteria:

a) Improvisation should be a key methodology.
This could be within the process of delivering workshop activity and/or as a component of a final piece of work.

b) Social Justice 
The goal of the project is to engage broadly with themes that contribute to social justice. For example this might be through working with particular client groups who are currently disenfranchised and/or through the creation of work that shines a light on the lives and experiences of those who experience social injustice.

To apply:

Please send a short proposal (no more than two sides of A4) that describes your project. Please provide:

  • An project outline that describes what you wish to do and what you hope to achieve;
  • Details about your collaborators and / or the company or individual with whom you would like to work;
  • Details about how your project meets the criteria above;
  • A full and detailed budget showing how you would spend the money (for projects costing more than £1000, please state your other sources of funding and whether these are pending or confirmed).
  • The name and email contact details of someone who can act as a reference for your project.

Proposals should be sent to [email protected] by 5.00pm on 27 July 2018.

Applications will be considered by a panel comprising Rideout’s co-founder Saul Hewish, Chris’ wife Maggie Gordon Walker, and Colin Ellwood from Rose Bruford College. Successful applicants will be informed within 4 weeks of the closing date. If you do not hear from us by this time then your application has been unsuccessful. We regret that we cannot give individual feedback on applications.

 

Background

Chris Johnston was a co-founder and co-director of Rideout between 1999 and 2017. He was a passionate exponent of theatre and social justice, with a particular interest in the development of programmes within, and about, criminal justice. Furthermore, through his work with Fluxx, he was a pioneer in the development of longer-form drama improvisation strategies (‘Citizen Theatre’) to help communities explore themes of local and national concern. The theory and practice of his work are explored in his books; House of Games, The Improvisation Game, Drama Games for Those Who Like to Say No, and Disobedient Theatre. Chris worked at Rose Bruford College over many years as a visiting tutor on both the BA (Hons) European Theatre Arts and BA (Hons) Directing.